(OK, let me start off by acknowledging that in the literary work I am alluding to, Juliet is not asking this question because she's looking for Romeo. She's actually lamenting that he comes from the rival family. But it's so commonly misunderstood that I thought it would be useful nonetheless.)

Those of us who are fans of PocketBuilder are wondering what the future of the product is. PocketBuilder has, since version 1.0, been the product of a highly responsive development team. As you can see from the table, maintenance releases have generally come approximately three months apart. Version 1.5 came out about a half a year after 1.0 and version 2.0 came out about a year after 1.5. And the EBFs were, for a while, coming out about once a month.

Note that the last maintenance release was in January of 2006. That means it's now been over a year since the last maintenance release. There have been a few EBFs, but the most recent of those was in May of 2006, so it's been well over a half a year since even the last EBF.

Sybase announced at TechWave 2005 that their plans for future releases of PocketBuilder included version 2.5 in Q1 2006 and version 3.0 sometime after the PowerBuilder 11.0 release (http://teamsybase.net/blogs/?p=57). We're still waiting for 2.5, although a number of the features that we planned for it (i.e., Windows Mobile 5.0 support and the Multiple Orientation Painter) were released with version 2.0.4. Actually, TechWave 2005 was probably the last time I heard anything said about the future of the product. The name of the product was mentioned in the TechWave 2006 keynotes, but nothing about future releases.

The point is this: you can't expect end users to remain committed to a product in the long term if the company that makes the product doesn't demonstrate their own commitment to it. Two years since the last major release, one year since the last maintenance release, and six months since the last EBF doesn't demonstrate commitment, and the end users are starting to notice. Even if another maintenance release or major version is not imminent, Sybase needs to start communicating their plans about the future of the product.

Better yet, they need to get serious about marketing it. Did you know the Zune is Windows Mobile based? Given that the Zune is - at least for the moment - rather hot, how about a developer contest for the Zune platform? Sybase would have to make sure that PocketBuilder worked correctly on the Zune. They'd also have to ensure that various API functions are added to address the unique capabilities of the Zune. Make it simple enough and you'd possibly draw in folks who would want to create Zune utilities who previously had no experience with any of Sybase's products, including PocketBuilder or PowerBuilder. That's what Sybase needs now, not just a shoring up of the base to reduce the erosion of existing customers, but something that would actively appeal to new developers.